MSNBC story Record numbers now licensed to pack heat

Firearms deaths fall as millions obtain permits to carry concealed guns
By Mike Stuckey
Senior news editor
msnbc.com
updated 8:43 a.m. ET, Wed., March. 24, 2010
Waving a chromed semiautomatic pistol, the robber pushed into the building in the bustling Five Points neighborhood of Columbia, S.C., just before 11 p.m. on April 11, 2009. “Gimme what you got!” he yelled, his gun hand trembling.
Attorney Jim Corley was one of four people in the room, the lounge area of a 12-step recovery group’s meeting hall. “He said, ‘Give me your wallet,’” Corley recalled. “So I reached around to my back pocket and gave him what was there.”
Unfortunately for the gunman, later identified as Kayson Helms, 18, of Edison, N.J., that was Corley’s tiny Kel-Tec .32, hidden in a wallet holster and loaded with a half-dozen hollow points. Corley fired once into the robber’s abdomen. The young man turned. Corley fired twice more, hitting him in the neck and again in the torso. Helms ran into the night and collapsed to die on a railroad embankment 100 feet away.
Reports filed by officers who arrived at the scene a short time later called it an “exceptionally clear” case of justifiable homicide. Following South Carolina’s “Castle Doctrine,” which allows the use of deadly force in self-defense, police did not arrest Corley. They did not interrogate him. Corley was offered the opportunity to make a voluntary statement, which he did.
Helms’ friends and relatives were left to mourn, barred by the same Castle Doctrine from filing a civil lawsuit.
Jim Corley became an unintentional spokesman for a burgeoning movement of millions of Americans who secretly and legally pack pistols in waistbands, under jackets, strapped to ankles, stashed in purses or — like Corley — tucked in hip pockets.
From its beginnings in the 1980s, the “right-to-carry” movement has succeeded in boosting the number of licensed concealed-gun carriers from fewer than 1 million to a record 6 million today, according to estimates from gun-rights groups that are supported by msnbc.com’s research. And while hotly debated, the effect of this dramatic increase is largely unknown.
Gun enthusiasts claim a link between more private citizens carrying concealed weapons and the nation’s dramatic decrease in violent crime. Gun-control activists argue that concealed-carry permits are being handed out to people who should never get them, sometimes resulting in tragic, needless shootings.
Effect on crime is hotly debated
But even with the push to expand concealed-carry rights now in its third decade, no scientific studies have reached any widely accepted conclusions about the movement’s effect on crime or personal safety.
Statistics from the national Centers for Disease Control do indicate that the murder and mayhem predicted by many opponents of concealed-carry laws have not come to pass. But even that point, while celebrated by gun-rights activists and conceded by some concealed-carry opponents, is disputed by others.
Both sides do agree on one thing: More Americans than ever are carrying hidden guns.
Firearms laws have been growing more relaxed across the United States for years. Gun-control activists have failed in efforts to re-enact the nationwide ban on certain semiautomatic rifles they call “assault weapons.” They were unable to block a change in federal law, signed by President Obama this year, which allows guns to be carried in national parks. And they watched in dismay as the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June 2008 that the Second Amendment grants residents of Washington, D.C., the right to own and keep loaded handguns in their homes.
Click on link below for the rest of story.Record numbers now licensed to pack heat - Life- msnbc.com

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Death By Gun Control The Mother of All Stats
In the 20th Century, at least 170,000,000 people were murdered by their own governments -- more killed than by crime – more than killed by war.http://jpfo.org/index.htm

Hooray for concealed weapons permits!!!! The parasitic vermin are feeling the heat (pun intended). When they can no longer act with impunity because they have a stolen pistol to wave around, crime goes down. Amazing isn't it?

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In life, strive to take the high road....It offers a better field of fire.
"Robo is right" Fuzzball

I just saw a blurb on another forum that "shall issue" has cleared the Iowa house & senate and is going to the Governor's desk. My interwebz at work is acting goofy today so I wasn't able to go to the linked site. If so, congrats to our brethren in Iowa!

Firearms deaths fall as millions obtain permits to carry concealed guns
By Mike Stuckey
Senior news editor
msnbc.com
updated 8:43 a.m. ET, Wed., March. 24, 2010
Waving a chromed semiautomatic pistol, the robber pushed into the building in the bustling Five Points neighborhood of Columbia, S.C., just before 11 p.m. on April 11, 2009. “Gimme what you got!” he yelled, his gun hand trembling.
Attorney Jim Corley was one of four people in the room, the lounge area of a 12-step recovery group’s meeting hall. “He said, ‘Give me your wallet,’” Corley recalled. “So I reached around to my back pocket and gave him what was there.”
Unfortunately for the gunman, later identified as Kayson Helms, 18, of Edison, N.J., that was Corley’s tiny Kel-Tec .32, hidden in a wallet holster and loaded with a half-dozen hollow points. Corley fired once into the robber’s abdomen. The young man turned. Corley fired twice more, hitting him in the neck and again in the torso. Helms ran into the night and collapsed to die on a railroad embankment 100 feet away.
Reports filed by officers who arrived at the scene a short time later called it an “exceptionally clear” case of justifiable homicide. Following South Carolina’s “Castle Doctrine,” which allows the use of deadly force in self-defense, police did not arrest Corley. They did not interrogate him. Corley was offered the opportunity to make a voluntary statement, which he did.
Helms’ friends and relatives were left to mourn, barred by the same Castle Doctrine from filing a civil lawsuit.
Jim Corley became an unintentional spokesman for a burgeoning movement of millions of Americans who secretly and legally pack pistols in waistbands, under jackets, strapped to ankles, stashed in purses or — like Corley — tucked in hip pockets.

I saw the link to I do my hunting with a camera. I just had to post the gun poster.

__________________
Death By Gun Control The Mother of All Stats
In the 20th Century, at least 170,000,000 people were murdered by their own governments -- more killed than by crime – more than killed by war.http://jpfo.org/index.htm

About the Columbia, South Carolina incident, a current bill in the SC legislature, which is expected to pass, will allow anyone who can legally own a gun to carry anywahere in the state without a permit. It even states that no longer can a store owner, church, etc, post a sign saying NO FIREARMS. The only places where carrying will carrying will be illegal is US Federal Gov't buildings, and I think they need to unloaded and remain in the owner's car on school grounds (I'm not sure of this). In addition South Carolina will still issue permits if requested, to keep the reciprocity with other states alive.

I guess the only states left that deny their residents the right to defend themselves are the notorious Wisconsin and Illinois, where they are dedicated to the principle of keeping the streets safe for criminals.